Insight 25 | Little things

Mr Clarke has been selling properties and helping people find their dream home for longer than he cares to remember. He knows that the devil is in the detail when preparing to sell a home and he doesn’t hold back when helping prepare a property for the market. I am here to sell houses. The first thing I need to do is spend time at the house and make sure that when buyers see it online they fall in love and then when they come around for their first viewing, they fall in love all over again. Buyers make a decision whether they are going to buy a home when they see it online and then this decision is confirmed within minutes of visiting the property.

We work with sellers to make sure every little thing is just so. Over the many years of selling homes, Mr Clarke considers what makes the difference between selling a house on the first weekend and it sitting on the property market for years. “High street agents are notorious for poor photography and rushing properties to the market without a floorplan. New online agencies’ photographs are even worse and listings are created by the owners who are not specialists. You have one chance to make a good impression and we ensure that homes are presented beautifully online and when viewing to give our clients the best chance of selling.”

Here are my tips on ensuring the little things are just right.

Darling Amelia and Oliver Those darling children (Amelia and Oliver are the UK’s most popular baby names in 2015) may send grandmas all googoogaagaa but messy children could knock £8,000 off the value of the average house, according to ING Direct. The only thing worse than standing on a piece of lego is watching a potential buyer of your home standing on a piece of lego and limping out of the house without putting an offer in. I once advised a client to pack every child based item into bin bags, deposit in the garage and redecorate the two bedrooms and remove the One Direction posters. The rooms looked bigger and buyers could see there was more use to them than just a kids room. The kids weren’t too impressed though!

Unfortunate names If you live somewhere with the word Warren or Chase in the address, you could be sitting on a small and growing fortune. For the locations with these names tend to be the most expensive in the country. Property website Zoopla, found a home in a road with Warren in its title is typically worth £607,267 – more than double the national average. But unfortunate names can cause more than a schoolboy chuckle. A friend of mine owns a house called Turkey Cock Cottage and I live near a picturesque village going by the name Bell End. How very unfortunate. I’d suggest either not using the name in the advertising or changing the address.

A mans best friend We love dogs. There is one sat by my feet as I write this blog. But they don’t smell of roses. Admit it, Fido pongs! One of our sales team had to arrive at a gorgeous house we were selling an hour early to open the windows and get the Diptique candles lit. The risk is that a pongy dog will knock up to 5 per cent off the asking price of a house. So get the pooch to the groomers and give him a wash.

The Moon Under The Water George Orwell wrote of his search for the perfect pub. Having a lovely local is high on the list of must haves when looking for a home. A rowdy Wetherspoons is not what people want. They are looking for an idyllic place to sit and meet other locals and be known by name by the landlady. Having a good pub close to a house increases the value of your property so choose wisely and mine’s a pint.

Interior Design We get asked regularly what we think will increase the chances of selling a house. As I said before, our job is to sell houses, if there are feature walls with garish wallpaper or mirrored ceilings in the bedroom we will tell you to get rid. They may fit your fabulous lifestyle but “subtle” sells.

Storage and light The two most important factors for viewers of houses is A.) whether there is enough space to store all that stuff we accumulate. And B.) Is the home light and bright. Nobody likes a dark space. So show off the storage spaces and make sure the windows are clean.

These are all relatively simple ways to ensure your home sells quickly and for the highest price. We help get the little things right when selling your home.